5 minutes

My husband told me about a writer who, in an effort to write every day, would pick a five minute part of his day that was worth talking about. Every day has a five minute moment that could serve as a prompt or make a good anecdote. After my seven month hiatus from the blog, and a lengthy hiatus from writing in general, I've decided to give it a try. Sometimes I back away from writing about something because I'm pressuring myself to analyze or find some bigger meaning, but not every piece has to be a novel!

I'm cheating a little bit with a story from last week because I kept telling it to friends and co-workers (though Husband getting stuck in a McDonald's vestibule during last night's storm while I was home alone could be amusing, too).

Husband and I decided to go for an evening walk, something we never do since we already walk everywhere (we live in the city and don't even own cars), but it was a nice night and we wanted to do something besides sit on the porch. Instead of walking toward the park, we walked up to the old Mickey's bar that had recently closed and is supposed to be turning into some sort of upscale tavern slash inn. We never walk up in this corner of the hood since it borders the interstate and isn't on the way to anywhere, so it was something different. After peeking in the windows and reading the permit postings, we strolled west down the next street. I hear this strange humming sound which isn't that unusual since the interstate is right there, but then it gets louder and we realize that it is a car horn and this banged up SUV comes flying around the corner right towards us! We leap out of the way towards the buildings, but the Jeep speeds straight down the street. The front end is completely smashed in and the driver has a the airbag laying in his lap. When I finally realize that I'm not getting hit by a car, I connect the dots that this person is probably in the run stage of a hit-and-run. By the time I think to look for a plate though, he's too far down the street to read it. It all happened very fast. We go by our neighborhood Corner Bar to compare notes (Jeep went by them, too), and then look around the hood, but didn't find any evidence of a wreck. Later, we were able to put the pieces together on our Facebook neighborhood watch page, and the good news is the guy was caught. Good thing since I was feeling guilty about not acting fast enough to get a plate, but like Husband said, he wasn't going to get far with the horn stuck blaring like that. Turns out the vehicle smashed into the corner of a condo building a few blocks away and then hit several parked cars while trying to get away.

Never a dull moment in the city!